4 ms·

The takeover of government functions by multinational corporations is a cyberpunk trope. See any of William Gibson's fiction from the early 80s.

UnpossibleJim 4y ago
Yes it's a cyberpunk trope, but it's also based in history. Wealthy nobles of Rome and Medieval times were landowners and, to put it bluntly, warmongers... using armies to make profit by war. They were nothing if not the corporate warlords of their times, holding shares in agriculture, land ownership and armies. Collecting shares of their workers (commonly referred to as share cropping), much like taxation. If that isn't some form of pseudo governmental function, I'm not sure what is =/
danuker 4y ago
Does that make it any less likely? https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/may/12/industry-of-inequality-why-world-is-obsessed-with-private-security https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/may/12/industry-... > For the 81 states for which estimates were available, private security workers appear to outnumber police forces in 44 countries – with a combined population of roughly 4 billion people – or more than half of the world’s total of 7.5 billion.
- notahacker 4y ago
  There's a bit of a difference between a world in which it's common for rich people and big buildings to employ security guards (as it has been for most of history) and Mr Lee's Greater Hong Kong...
MandieD 4y ago
WALL-E: entry-level cyberpunk?
- pram 4y ago
  One thing about WALL-E that bothers me is: this was a civilization that mastered interstellar travel, to the point where it was trivial enough for vacations. They seriously couldn’t come up with a better plan than burning all the trash? Just send it to the sun lol
  - mmh0000 4y ago
    We're a civilization that has mastered sea travel. It would take a massive, and likely, impossible, effort to move all our trash into the ocean. I imagine that same would be true of trying to move trash to the sun. Fun fact, it takes more fuel to send a mass to the Sun than it does to send it to Pluto[0]. [0] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/its-surprisingly-hard-to-go-to-the-sun https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/its-surprisingly-h...

UnpossibleJim 4y ago

Yes it's a cyberpunk trope, but it's also based in history. Wealthy nobles of Rome and Medieval times were landowners and, to put it bluntly, warmongers... using armies to make profit by war. They were nothing if not the corporate warlords of their times, holding shares in agriculture, land ownership and armies. Collecting shares of their workers (commonly referred to as share cropping), much like taxation. If that isn't some form of pseudo governmental function, I'm not sure what is =/

danuker 4y ago

Does that make it any less likely? https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/may/12/industry-of-inequality-why-world-is-obsessed-with-private-security https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/may/12/industry-... > For the 81 states for which estimates were available, private security workers appear to outnumber police forces in 44 countries – with a combined population of roughly 4 billion people – or more than half of the world’s total of 7.5 billion.

notahacker 4y ago
There's a bit of a difference between a world in which it's common for rich people and big buildings to employ security guards (as it has been for most of history) and Mr Lee's Greater Hong Kong...

MandieD 4y ago

WALL-E: entry-level cyberpunk?

pram 4y ago
One thing about WALL-E that bothers me is: this was a civilization that mastered interstellar travel, to the point where it was trivial enough for vacations. They seriously couldn’t come up with a better plan than burning all the trash? Just send it to the sun lol
- mmh0000 4y ago
  We're a civilization that has mastered sea travel. It would take a massive, and likely, impossible, effort to move all our trash into the ocean. I imagine that same would be true of trying to move trash to the sun. Fun fact, it takes more fuel to send a mass to the Sun than it does to send it to Pluto[0]. [0] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/its-surprisingly-hard-to-go-to-the-sun https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/its-surprisingly-h...